Welcome to the 13th ITS Asia Pacific Forum 2014!

On behalf of ITS New Zealand, I am pleased to invite you to attend and participate in the 13th Asia Pacific ITS Forum and Exhibition 2014 in Auckland. The same year also marks the 10th anniversary for ITS New Zealand.

The theme for our 2014 Forum and Exhibition is SCORE (safety, choices, opportunities, results, efficiencies). This theme is well represented by Auckland’s wide range of ITS projects already in use close to the venue; showcasing New Zealand’s ITS capabilities, supporting safe and efficient networks.

As New Zealand’s principal city, Auckland is an ideal venue for the Forum and Exhibition. The Aotea Centre in central Auckland is New Zealand’s premiere convention destination with a diverse range of nearby hotels, attractions and touring options including world-class shopping, stunning natural surround, and outdoor adventure and relaxation opportunities. Auckland International Airport is served by more than 20 international airlines and has been voted as one of the 10 best airports in the world.

While in Auckland, delegates will have the opportunity to participate in a number of technical tours including:

ITS New Zealand is committed to delivering a highly engaging and enjoyable13th Asia Pacific ITS Forum and Exhibition in 2014.Our venue city Auckland aims to be the world’s most liveable city, and I welcome the opportunity to add thewealth of knowledge and experience that our delegates will bring to this vision. I also look forward to having you join us in celebrating our 10-year milestone achievements in ITS.

Peter McCombsPresident, ITS New Zealand

Latest Articles

When becoming a personal trainer, you know only too well that personal fitness training is more about tuning your client’s psyche rather than their physique. As it is, exercising regularly is tough for most people and they need oodles of motivation to keep up the enthusiasm factor.

So more than a tough trainer, what your clients need is a sympathetic and considerate instructor who will show them how to exercise confidently and enjoy each and every session too.

Communication in personal training is of vital importance and that is why all top-notch personal training courses teach prospective trainers how to connect with their clients effectively and effortlessly. See how to run your functional training workouts by taking a look at the Dangerously Fit Academy.

As a trained personal instructor, physical fitness and robust health comes naturally to you. Your body is accustomed to the rigours of training and your muscles and well-toned body are the cause of envy of others.

However, your clients are different. Some have never exercised before; some have had bad experiences while still others feel they don’t need any personal supervision. Different people have different requirements and you must first learn how to communicate properly with your clients if you really want to help them.

As a personal trainer, always remember that no matter what the circumstances or provocation or how frustrating the client is, you should never use words or gestures that can cause harm.

Personal training courses teach you never use judgmental words such as fat/obese/weak/good-for-nothing/failure etc which can really alter your client’s self-confidence.

Similarly, never use vague terms such as maybe/ you can try/ I’m not sure’ etc. Your clients look up to you for guidance, inspiration and stimulation; your words should help them gain confidence in exercise and not confuse them further.

Inappropriate Communication can Hamper your Career

In the world of fitness training, word-of-mouth can make a huge difference as to how you are perceived as an instructor. How you interact with your clients, what is your attitude during each session, how involved you remain, how you react to client queries, how willing you are to demonstrate the steps all these are perhaps as important as your certifications. Discipline and dedication are required but this does not mean you have to bark orders or be rude to your clients.

Most people lead a sedentary lifestyle without much activity thrown into their daily life. However, it is an unhealthy life that makes your body susceptible to a host of ailments and disorders, not to speak of weakness; fatigue and lethargy.

Your legs are most affected from all that sitting around and you should really do some functional training to maintain their strength and fitness.

Personal Training for your Legs

Strong; healthy legs allow you a host of movements that are essential in your daily life. Weak leg muscles and stiff joints are signs that you really need to take care of your legs. Personal training can help restore strength and flexibility to your leg muscles and improve their performance so that you can enjoy life unfettered.

This type of workout combines low-intensity everyday movements such as walking; sitting; sprinting; climbing; squatting; lunging and so on. Repeating the same movements helps improve neuromuscular coordination and muscle memory so that your leg muscles can perform at their optimum best. The workouts are easy and you can try them at home after speaking to an expert.

Lunges

This is an age-old workout that is basic to building strength in your leg muscles. It is extremely effective in helping you move in different directions without the risk of injury. Lunges are just perfect to improve mobility; make the hips more flexible and enhance stability and balance in the legs. There are different types of lunges to try out and doing all of them increases your range of motion in directions you thought were not possible.

Squat and Deadlift

Your hips get little exercise and can become stiff over the years if you are sitting at a desk or lying on the couch for the better part of the day. A combined workout of squats and deadlifts can help you overcome this problem and restore mobility and flexibility to your hip joint along with the leg muscles. To do this, stand straight with a neutral spine and arms hanging at sides. Bend the right knee even as you push your left leg backward. Squat down slowly and try to touch the ground. Keep the butt low; hold position and return slowly to standing posture. EPTI personal training certifications will show you the correct squatting patterns and how to hip hinger correctly with your deadlifts.

The Heavy Walk

Walking is a basic function that you perform each minute without being aware of it consciously. However, there can be times when your gain is not straight; posture incorrect or your leg muscles are not strong enough to sustain long walks with heavy loads.

The heavy walk exercise is an excellent move to strengthen those legs thus enabling you to take long strides even while carrying heavy loads. You can use equipments such as dumbbells, kettleballs or any suitable weight that you can carry easily in each hand. The movement is simple; emulating your regular stride.

Stand straight; maintain a neutral spine; press the chest forward and keep hands straight at both sides while holding the weights in each hand. Start walking forward; taking care that the weights are not resting against your legs. Keep walking as long as you comfortably can and even a little more to build and maintain the overload.

If yes then ever wondered why you were made to do all those stretching stuffs before workout. You are here to exercise, right, and then why this mini schedule before the actual thing.

Why not just cut the chase and begin pounding on all those weights in the gym or start the soccer game or any sport that you are about to play. Stretching has all the goodie effects on the body muscles. Stretching can be divided into two categories; Static and Dynamic. First of all, let’s see what these types are:

Static Stretch

This kind of stretch is the one in which you relax your muscles with static i.e., standing or sitting position. You donot move much and try to stretch different muscles in a passive position. It is also sometimes referred to as Passive Stretch.

The objective of this stretch is to relax muscles without the involvement of any joint movement. Most of the studies show that static stretch is much effective after a workout session, than before it. Have a a look at the Dangerously Fit Personal Training Facebook page for more studies on this subject.

Dynamic Stretch

This stretch has been recommended by most of the coaches and even studies suggest that dynamic stretches are more effective before a Coogee Fitness workout session. Dynamic stretch involves a mix of cardio movements or you can say aerobic style movements. This is an active kind of stretching in which joint and muscle movements are involved to pump up your sleeping muscles. This will prepare your body for the final game or sport or gym. Dynamic stretch is also called Active Stretch.

If you join bootcampbondibeach.com.au, remember to start simple. As a beginner you can start with exercises such as lunges, push ups, jumping jacks, planks, squats etc. These can even be done at home. When you feel you are ready to go in for a heavier exercise routine it is advisable to use the services of a boot camp.

A personal trainer will ensure that you perform the workouts correctly and do not run the risk of any injury. If not a gym membership, you could join a Bondi Beach boot camp where fitness instructors will put you through the workout regime.

Look at getting a workout partner

It is always more enjoyable if you have a like-minded person sharing a particular interest. This applies to working out also. Having someone to work out with will keep you motivated, as also sharing of useful tips and setting time-tables.

Make your workouts suit your personal needs

Whatever workout you choose to do you should see that it suits your personal needs and will help you to reach your goal. Once you embark on the journey, you should stay self-disciplined, motivated and perform the exercises with good technique and form. Keep in mind that to achieve your goal it will take time and effort – you have to work hard and be accountable. Then only will you achieve the success you are looking for. As a newbie you need to follow the right tips when undertaking a new venture. Ignorance and a brash attitude could end in failure.

Exercises can change your life for the better. If you begin your day with a series of exercise or go for a morning run/ walk, you are making your body fitter. In addition, you are also building your immunity to wade of lifestyle diseases.

When you are into exercising daily, then you need to follow a proper regime. Chalk out your work out plan, fix a schedule and also create a diet plan that will only enable you to move to the next level of intense work outs.

If you are a beginner, then you can start with a series of simple work routines. One among the most popular exercises is push ups. It is considered to be a full body work out. In fact, there are many levels in push ups too. You can keep addition variations while doing push ups, once you advance to the next level of fitness.

However, there are common mistakes that you commit while doing push ups, especially if you are doing it without the advice of a personal trainer in Coogee. If you hire a personal trainer, then he or she will able to point out the following mistakes that you commit while doing push ups.

Mistake 1

In most cases, you bend your knees even while doing push ups. As a result, your body is not straight from head to toe. Make sure you push your whole body up and down while doing the exercise. Also, if you are pushing your head out first, then disturbs your head to toe alignment. As a result, you will get tired quickly or will not be able increase the push up count easily.

A personal trainer from Coogee Fitness – Boot Camp will be able to able to teach you the right way to do it. You need to treat your body as a plank, keeping your midsection tight and butt clenched throughout the reps.

Mistake 2

Doing push ups is a challenging exercise. As a result, while you are doing them, your body tends to find easy ways to do the same without realising that you are actually doing it all wrong.

For example, your head or nose would touch the ground first, followed by your chest and then your stomach. This is absolutely wrong. Your chest should first touch the ground and not your head or nose. If you are finding it difficult, push your head slightly to the back so you do not make the mistake.

Mistake 3

Don’t flare your arms wide out like a chicken. You may spread wide to get more balance while doing push ups but that is not the right posture. Keep your arms close to your body. Again, not so close that you find it difficult to do the push ups. Just keep them tucked in slightly and you will get the right posture.

Mistake 4

Avoid trying variations too quickly. If you are new to push ups, then first learn the basic such as doing them correctly. Consult a Coogee personal trainer and find out when is the right time to start trying variations while doing push ups. Even if you feel you are ready to start doing variations, then take it easy on your body and so the easier ones first.

To keep your fitness marketing agency running smoothly you need a good contact medium. A new and relatively cost effective method to make contact when it comes to fitness marketing is by SMS. With just a few taps on your smart phone you can use SMS marketing to literally increase and improve your business.

How SMS marketing works

Because fitness training is an ‘on and off’ activity, the fortunes of gym SEO or fitness training marketing agency can also fluctuate.

Once members reach their fitness goals they stop attending and unless there is a new crop of people waiting to join, the business can go into a dip. SMS is the answer to this problem, as it is reasonably cheap and can be used as a long-term strategy.

Daily text messages can be sent out to existing members as also motivation texts and messages reminding members of special diets. Smart phones are now part and parcel of most individuals, and receiving SMS messages not only act as reminders, they also make people feel a sense of importance.

Other benefits of SMS

There are some members attending the gym who would prefer to work out when the place is not too crowded. There are others who are reluctant to work out in the presence of real body building pros.

So when the gym is relatively quiet with just a few people working out, you could send out an SMS to people in the above two categories – if free, they could quickly get ready and take advantage of such less crowded sessions.

This suggestion could also work when the gym has slowed down in business. A reminder SMS sent out to people on your contact list could draw in a decent crowd converting the slow-down into a busy exercise hub.

Alternative to a diary

Almost every person has a smart phone these days – which they use as a diary. So when you want to inform gym members of class schedules, sending an SMS is fast and effective. You can reach several people in one go, as also make any last minute changes.

Not only the gym members, if any of the specific exercise instructors cannot make it, you can quickly send out an SMS and arrange for a replacement. This works also if a class has to be totally cancelled. An SMS is easy and quick to read and a mutually beneficial method of corresponding.

As an effective promotion

An effective promotion for any business depends a good deal on timing. In the business of fitness marketing sudden changes can occur such as cancellations due to illness or other personal reasons. As mentioned above if a particular trainer is unavailable the members involved in such training could be advised even last minute of such absenteeism and be saved the trouble of turning up.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, as a customer interface SMS messaging has no equal. It is an ideal tool for the fitness marketing business to balance their activities with the same attention paid to the health of their customers.